The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association have partnered with app developer Nifty Games to create a new head-to-head NBA-themed game for mobile phones. NBA players, teams, and venues will all be featured in the mobile game, which is scheduled to be released later this year.
Nifty Games has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The company announced a $3 million seed fundraising round in 2018, which included investment from esports firm Axiomatic Gaming, which owns esports franchise Team Liquid. Notable investors in Axiomatic Gaming include Disney, NBA legends Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, as well as Golden State Warriors owner Peter Guber and Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis.
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“Video games have become an important part of the NBA off-the-court culture both for our players and fans,” said Josh Goodstadt, EVP of licensing for the NBPI, the commercial arm of the NBPA. “We look forward to this new partnership with the League and Nifty Games and to further expanding the use of our players’ group licensing rights into the mobile gaming space.”
Gaming continues to be a major source of new revenue opportunities for the NBA, highlighted by the league’s creation of the NBA 2K League that will begin its third season this spring. While the partnership with Nifty Games exclusively pertains to mobile gaming, the NBA 2K League is played on PC.
In addition to the NBPA, players associations throughout sports have recently put more resources into ensuring athletes benefit from their names and likenesses in video games. The NFLPA and MLBPA partnered last November to form OneTeam Partners, a new marketing firm dedicated to helping athletes increase their revenue share for representation in the digital gaming space.
